Geoffrey Ling

Last updated
Geoffrey Ling
Dr Ling DARPA.jpg
Born Baltimore, Maryland
AllegianceFlag of the United States.svg  United States of America
Service/branchFlag of the United States Army.svg  United States Army
Years of service1985-2012
Rank Colonel
Battles/wars War in Afghanistan (2003), Iraq War (2005)
Alma mater Washington University in St. Louis
Cornell University
Georgetown University

Geoffrey S. F. Ling is a medical doctor who retired from the United States Army as a colonel and was the CEO of On Demand Pharmaceuticals. He served as the founding director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office from 2014 until 2016. [1] He was considered to be the "US Army's premier subject matter expert on traumatic brain injury (TBI)", and was for years the only neuro-intensive care specialist in the US military. [2]

Contents

Prominent in his DARPA research portfolio are Preventing Violent Explosive Neuro Trauma (PREVENT), prevention of explosive blast traumatic brain injury, [3] Revolutionizing Prostheses (RP), development of responsive, brain-controlled, artificial arms, Predicting Health and Disease (PHD), combination of biomarkers and advanced analytics to diagnosis of disease in the presymptomatic state and Battlefield Medicine, development of point-of-care drug manufacturing technology. He also served as a Program Manager and following, the deputy director of the Defense Sciences Office. Ling is recipient of the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, Legion of Merit, Alpha Omega Alpha, Sigma Xi and the Humanitarian Award from the Brain Mapping Foundation. [2] [4]

On May 21, 2018, HARPA (Health Advanced Research Projects Agency) was first publicly proposed on Fox Business News by Bob Wright and Geoff Ling . In April 2020, Ling co-wrote with Michael Stebbins the proposal for the creation this new federal agency modeled on DARPA, but focused on health. That proposal was adopted by then former Vice-President Biden's presidential campaign and published on line as part of the Day One Project. It became the model used to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Personal

Ling was born in Baltimore, MD to Alfred Ling, M.D, Ph.D. and Helen M. Ling, M.S. His father was a professor at Rockefeller University and a pharmaceutical executive. His mother was an aerospace engineer who worked on the U.S. space program. He is married to Shari Ling, M.D., the national Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). [5]

Education

Ling graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He earned his BA from Washington University in St. Louis, and earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences (1982). He completed post doctoral training in Neuropharmacology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (1982-1985). [6] In 1989, Ling earned an M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine. [3] Both his neurology internship (1989-1990) and later residency (1990-1993) were completed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. From 1993 to 1995 Ling had a clinical fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Neurosciences Critical Care Unit. [6] At Cornell and Sloan-Kettering, he did opioid research. [7] [8]

Professional history

Military

Ling completed two war deployments as a neurointensive care physician: Afghanistan (2003) and Iraq (2005), as well as four "Gray Team" missions to study combat brain injuries. [9] [10] His medical studies of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq show that over 50% of those who died of wounds had head injuries. [11]

Prior to his position as the founding Director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA, Ling was Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). [9] He has been on the USUHS faculty since 1995 and is now Emeritus Professor. For many years, he was the Army's only neuro-intensive care physician. [2] [12] Ling is also Professor of Neurology and Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital [13] and was a member of President Obama's White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). [3] Ling served as an Army doctor for 27 years, and retired in 2012. Ling and his work have been featured twice on the TV show 60 Minutes , in 2009 and 2012. [14] [15]

Other

Ling is Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital [13] and is a member of the neurosciences critical care unit (NCCU) clinical faculty. He was a member of President Obama's White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). [3] Ling and his work have been featured twice on the TV show 60 Minutes , in 2009 and 2012. [14] [15] He was also one of the doctors who treated American Congresswoman Gabby Giffords after she had been shot in the head. [2] Ling's publications include over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, research reviews, and book chapters [9]

Dr. Ling doing the fist bump with an artificial arm patient. LingFistBumpArtificialArm.jpg
Dr. Ling doing the fist bump with an artificial arm patient.

Prosthetic arm development

Because of engineering and medical concerns, arm replacement is more difficult than leg replacement. Arm replacement technology was far behind leg replacement technology when DARPA began the Revolutionizing Prosthetics team in 2006. In May 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first of the two prosthetic arms developed under that program. [16] [17] Earlier in 2014, DARPA's Biological Technologies Office announced the launch of a new Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program, which aims to deliver naturalistic sensations to amputees and, in the process, enable intuitive, dexterous control of advanced prosthetic devices; provide the psychological benefit of improving prosthesis "embodiment"; and reduce phantom limb pain. Ling has described the problem of developing a high quality artificial arm as "doggone hard". [18] Ling's Revolutionizing Prosthetics team's work could lead to the restoration of sight and hearing. Using his artificial arms, amputees could precisely move their artificial arms with just thought. [14] [15]

Awards

Ling is board certified in both neurology and neurocritical care. Ling was an "A" designated Army neurologist and is a recipient of the Order of Military Medical Merit. [10] In Toronto, Canada, in 2012, Ling was awarded the Humanitarian Award from the Brain Mapping Foundation. [2] [4] He is a Fellow of the American Neurological Association, American Academy of Neurology and the Neurocritical Care Society. Named DARPA Program Manager of the Year (2008), Cornell University Alumnus of the Year (2008) and Washington University Distinguished Alumnus (2015). Is member of Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma Xi. In 2016, he received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. In 2022, he was conferred an honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) by the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences</span> Health science university of the United States federal government

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is a health science university of the U.S. federal government. The primary mission of the school is to prepare graduates for service to the U.S. at home and abroad as uniformed health professionals, scientists and leaders; by conducting cutting-edge, military-relevant research; by leading the Military Health System in key functional and intellectual areas; and by providing operational support to units around the world.

Brain implants, often referred to as neural implants, are technological devices that connect directly to a biological subject's brain – usually placed on the surface of the brain, or attached to the brain's cortex. A common purpose of modern brain implants and the focus of much current research is establishing a biomedical prosthesis circumventing areas in the brain that have become dysfunctional after a stroke or other head injuries. This includes sensory substitution, e.g., in vision. Other brain implants are used in animal experiments simply to record brain activity for scientific reasons. Some brain implants involve creating interfaces between neural systems and computer chips. This work is part of a wider research field called brain–computer interfaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SUNY Downstate Medical Center</span> Hospital in New York City, United States

SUNY Downstate Medical Center is a public medical school and hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It is the southernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and the only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care serving Brooklyn's 2.5 million residents. As of Fall 2018, it had a total student body of 1,846 and approximately 8,000 faculty and staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences</span> Mental hospital in Bangalore, India

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences is a medical institution in Bangalore, India. NIMHANS is the apex centre for mental health and neuroscience education in the country. It is an Institute of National Importance operates autonomously under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. NIMHANS is ranked 4th best medical institute in India, in the current National Institutional Ranking Framework.

A fellowship is the period of medical training, in the United States and Canada, that a physician, dentist, or veterinarian may undertake after completing a specialty training program (residency). During this time, the physician is known as a fellow. Fellows are capable of acting as an attending physician or a consultant physician in the specialist field in which they were trained, such as internal medicine or pediatrics. After completing a fellowship in the relevant sub-specialty, the physician is permitted to practice without direct supervision by other physicians in that sub-specialty, such as cardiology or oncology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgetown University Medical Center</span>

Georgetown University Medical Center is a Washington, D.C.-based biomedical research and educational organization affiliated with Georgetown University that is responsible for over 80% of the university's sponsored research funding and is led by Edward B. Healton, MD, the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and Executive Dean of the School of Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurointensive care</span> Branch of medicine that deals with life-threatening diseases of the nervous system

Neurocritical care is a medical field that treats life-threatening diseases of the nervous system and identifies, prevents, and treats secondary brain injury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Gjedde</span>

Albert Gjedde: is a Danish-Canadian neuroscientist. He is Professor of Neurobiology and Pharmacology at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Center of Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen. He is currently also Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurology, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Adjunct Professor of Radiology and Radiological Science in the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, US, Adjunct Professor of Translational Neuropsychiatry Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, and adjunct professor of psychiatry at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, East Azerbadjan, Iran.

The Mischer Neuroscience Institute is a combined research and education effort between the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann Hospital. Located in Houston, the Institute draws patients from around the world for specialized treatment of diseases of the brain and spine. It was the first center in Texas and one of only a few institutions in the country to fully integrate neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, neuro-oncology, spine surgery, pain medicine and neurorehabilitation.

The White House BRAIN Initiative is a collaborative, public-private research initiative announced by the Obama administration on April 2, 2013, with the goal of supporting the development and application of innovative technologies that can create a dynamic understanding of brain function.

Brain technology, or self-learning know-how systems, defines a technology that employs latest findings in neuroscience. [see also neuro implants] The term was first introduced by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland, in the context of the Roboy project. Brain Technology can be employed in robots, know-how management systems and any other application with self-learning capabilities. In particular, Brain Technology applications allow the visualization of the underlying learning architecture often coined as “know-how maps”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajiv Ratan</span> American physician

Rajiv Ratan is an Indian American academic, professor, administrator and scientist based in New York. He is the Burke Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine. Since 2003, he has served as the executive director of Burke Neurological Institute and as a member of the Council of Affiliated Deans of Weill Cornell Medicine.

The Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) is an international, multidisciplinary medical society first established in 2002. The Society is dedicated to improving the care and outcomes of patients with life-threatening neurologic illnesses in the intensive care unit. Common illnesses requiring neurocritical care include ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, coma, and status epilepticus. Its members are health professionals providing care to critically ill and injured patients. The Society supports research and education, and advocates on issues related to neurointensive care, neurocritical care, and general critical care.

Christian Macedonia is a medical doctor and a retired United States Army officer. From 2009 to 2011, he led the Gray Team which was tasked to improve the care of American forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Igor Koralnik is an American physician, neurologist and scientist. He is one of the first physicians to study the neurologic complications caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and is a leading researcher in the investigation of the polyomavirus JC, which causes progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a disease of the central nervous system that occurs in immunosuppressed individuals.

The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) is one of the seven technical offices within DARPA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense that is responsible for the development of advanced technology for national security. BTO was created in 2014 by combining some programs from the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). The office focuses on basic and applied research in the areas of gene editing, biotechnologies, neurosciences and synthetic biology — from powered exoskeletons for soldiers to brain implants that can control mental disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital</span> Hospital in Montreal, Quebec

The Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital(MNI), also known as Montreal Neuro or The Neuro, is a research and medical centre dedicated to neuroscience, training and clinical care, located in the city's downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is part of the McGill University Health Centre network and it is situated on the southern slope of Mount Royal along the east side of University Street, just north of Pine Avenue. It was founded in 1934 by neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, who developed the Montreal procedure there for the treatment of epilepsy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Oxley (neurologist)</span> Neurointerventionist

Thomas J. Oxley is the chief executive officer of Synchron and neurointerventionist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Trained as a vascular and interventional neurologist, he established the Vascular Bionics laboratory at the University of Melbourne and is currently co-head of this lab. Oxley is best known for founding Synchron, a company building next-generation brain computer interface solutions that has recently announced the first clinical data on a novel stent electrode (Stentrode) neural interface that is inserted through blood vessels. The company was initiated sometime after his cold-call to DARPA for funding, and has received substantial funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Australian government to research this minimally-invasive neural interface technology.

Sherry Hsiang-Yi Chou is a Canadian neurologist and an Associate Professor of Neurology and Chief of Neurocritical Care at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Medicine. She is a Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic Chou assembled a worldwide team of physicians and scientists to better understand the neurological impacts of COVID-19, forming the Global Consortium Study of Neurologic Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID). The first report of this large, multicenter, multicontinent consortium found that neurological manifestations are present in 8 out of 10 adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and are associated with increased mortality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David H. Gutmann</span> American neurologist

David Hillel Gutmann is an American neurologist-neuroscientist. He teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor, and Director of the Washington University Neurofibromatosis Center at He is an international expert in Neurofibromatosis, pioneering the use of preclinical models to understand brain tumors and neurodevelopmental delays in children with NF1.

References

  1. ↑ "Geoffrey Ling Bio on DARPA's Biological Technologies Office". DARPA. Archived from the original on 2014-05-23. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Abdullah, Stephanie P. (June 13, 2012). "Colonel honored with humanitarian award from the Brain Mapping Foundation for work with TBI". United States Army. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Geoffrey Ling, MD, PhD, Col. (Ret.)". Brain Line Military. 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "The Brain Mapping Foundation Awards a US Army colonel and 3 Distinguished U.S. and Canadian Scientists at its Gala in Toronto". PR Newswire. May 29, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Center for Clinical Standards & Quality | CMS".
  6. 1 2 "COL Geoffrey Ling". Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. July 25, 2012. Archived from the original on June 9, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  7. ↑ Ling, Geoffrey; et al. (1981). "Methadone: radioimmunoassay and pharmacokinetics in the rat". Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 217 (1): 147–151. PMID   7205649.
  8. ↑ Ling, Geoffrey; et al. (1984). "Separation of morphine analgesia from physical dependence". Science. 226 (4673): 464-464. Bibcode:1984Sci...226..462L. doi:10.1126/science.6541807. PMID   6541807.
  9. 1 2 3 "Dr. Geoffrey Ling Bio". DARPA. Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  10. 1 2 "Geoffrey Ling, M.D., Ph.D., FAAN" (PDF). Center for Public-Private Partnerships. Retrieved June 3, 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  11. ↑ Ling, Geoffrey. "Explosive Blast Traumatic Brain Injury" (PDF). Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Retrieved June 3, 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  12. ↑ "Geoffrey S. F. Ling, MD., Ph.D." National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. January 24, 2012. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Dr. Geoffrey Ling". The Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on June 19, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  14. 1 2 3 "The Pentagon's Bionic Arm". CBS News. April 12, 2009.
  15. 1 2 3 "Imagining the Future of Restoration". CBS News. December 20, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  16. ↑ Laine, Susan. "FDA allows marketing of first prosthetic arm that translates signals from person's muscles to perform complex tasks". FDA. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  17. ↑ "From Idea to Market in Eight Years, DARPA-Funded Deka Arm Systems Earns FDA Approval". DARPA. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  18. ↑ Scudellari, Megan (September 1, 2012). "Missing Touch". The Scientist. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.